NEW ORLEANS (AP) \u2014 Tulane quarterback Jake Retzlaff recalls being \u201cdevastated\u201d when it became clear last spring that he would be unable to play his final season of college football at BYU.<\/p>\n
His penchant for making plays in big moments, as well as for publicly embracing his Jewish heritage, made him something of a celebrated novelty at the Utah school run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>, where he became known as \u201cBYJew.\u201d<\/p>\n Suffice it to say he\u2019s landed on his feet at Tulane<\/a> \u2014 a university with a relatively large concentration of Jewish students, around 3,000 in all.<\/p>\n The \u201cBayou Jew\u201d has help lead the Green Wave (11-2) to an American Conference championship<\/a> and a first College Football Playoff berth. Tulane, seeded 11th, visits No. 6 seed Mississippi on Saturday.<\/p>\n Retzlaff has been \u201ca perfect fit\u201d at Tulane, said Dave Cariello, owner of the Campus Connection, which sells Green Wave merchandise and partners with players on name, image and likeness deals.<\/p>\n A Tulane graduate from the New York area, Cariello designed two T-shirts featuring Retzlaff, one calling him the Shabbat Shotgun and another referring to him as the aforementioned Bayou Jew.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s certainly been our top-selling NIL athlete,\u201d Cariello said. \u201cThere seems to be a larger appetite for Jake\u2019s stuff and I believe that\u2019s partly because of his Jewish background. The other part is he\u2019s the starting quarterback.\u201d<\/p>\n Retzlaff went 11-2 as starter in 2024 at BYU, which narrowly missed out on playing for a Big 12 title. He was looking forward to returning to the Cougars in 2025 when he was named in a since-dismissed civil sexual assault lawsuit.<\/p>\n While Retzlaff contended the relationship in question was consensual, that was a problem at BYU, where the university\u2019s honor code requires students to abstain from premarital sex. Had he remained enrolled there, he\u2019d have been suspended.<\/p>\n Retzlaff was confident he\u2019d get offers from other competitive college programs. But at Tulane, he found that and more.<\/p>\n \u201cGod\u2019s got a plan. And that\u2019s the hardest thing to realize in the worst of times,\u201d Retzlaff said. \u201cI had everything great. It gets taken from me. And now I got to go make lemonade.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I get to meet all these people and create all these relationships\u201d at Tulane and around New Orleans.<\/p>\n Retzlaff did not arrive at Tulane until July, giving him a compressed timeline to learn the Wave\u2019s offense and bond with teammates. He started by trying to sit with different players during each team meal inside Yulman Stadium.<\/p>\n \u201cGuys have their groups that they usually eat lunch with or dinner with and I\u2019m like, all right, I\u2019m just going to jump in,\u201d Retzlaff recalled.<\/p>\n The dual-threat quarterback from California thrived under offensive coordinator Joe Craddock, an Alabama native who said the pace of Retzlaff\u2019s compressed integration reminded him of NASCAR races at Talladega.<\/p>\n Retzlaff passed for 2,862 yards and 14 TDs with six interceptions this season. He also has been Tulane\u2019s leading rusher with 610 yards and 16 touchdowns \u2014 a record for rushing touchdowns in a season by a Green Wave QB.<\/p>\n Coach Jon Sumrall, who will take over as Florida coach<\/a> when Tulane\u2019s playoff run ends<\/a>, has been struck by Retzlaff\u2019s \u201cmoxie and his competitive nature.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s got a little gamesmanship about him,\u201d Sumrall added. \u201cHe\u2019s got a little edge about him, a little toughness that rubs off on other guys.\u201d<\/p>\n Sumrall also appreciated Retzlaff\u2019s humility and emphasis on team-building.<\/p>\n \u201cJake has handled some things that came his way that weren\u2019t ideal really well,\u201d Sumrall said. \u201cHis gratitude for his opportunity here has been very real.\u201d<\/p>\n Retzlaff still misses BYU, stays in touch with former teammates and watched all of the Cougars\u2019 games this season.<\/p>\n Practicing his faith has been easier at Tulane.<\/p>\n He has visited regularly with Rabbi Yochanan Rivkin at Tulane\u2019s Chabad house. They\u2019ve wrapped tefillin (leather straps with small scrolls attached) while saying prayers. He attended a Rosh Hashanah dinner hosted by Chabad with about 600 students.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m impressed with his Jewish pride,\u201d Rivkin said Monday, a day after at least 15 people were shot to death at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s not the easiest time to be a proud Jew right now.\u201d<\/p>\n When the topic of the Bondi Beach massacre in Australia came up, Retzlaff noted that he tries to keep the Star of David on his necklace outside his shirt, regardless of whether it might make him a target of antisemitism.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s who I am and I\u2019m confident in that,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m confident in the Jewish people. We\u2019ve been through a lot as it is \u2014 like too much.\u201d<\/p>\n Prominent members of New Orleans\u2019 Jewish community have connected with Retzlaff.<\/p>\n He has dined with celebrity Israeli-American chef Alon Shaya. He attended a Saints game against Tampa Bay with Tulane graduate Jill Glazer and her husband, Avie, whose family owns the Buccaneers. He met with the director of the local Jewish Community Center and recently sat courtside for a Pelicans game with an attorney whose regional firm sponsors the NBA team.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody wanted to meet Jake,\u201d said Michael Arata, director of the Fear the Wave NIL collective, who made some of the introductions. \u201cHe\u2019s met a terrific group of people who\u2019ve kind of taken him in.\u201d<\/p>\n Retzlaff has made them proud; he might have been congratulated more by people using the Hebrew phrase \u201cmazel tov\u201d this year than any time since his bar mitzvah.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what we get to do by going to play in the College Football Playoff,\u201d Retzlaff said. \u201c\u2018Jewlane\u2019 and the \u2018Bayou Jew\u2019 get to go make a headline and be more positive about Judaism and the faith and how this is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n As of early this week, Ole Miss was favored to beat Tulane by around 17 points.<\/p>\n The game will take place during Hanukkah, which, Retzlaff noted, is a holiday that celebrates a miracle.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here<\/a> and here<\/a> (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW ORLEANS (AP) \u2014 Tulane quarterback Jake Retzlaff recalls being \u201cdevastated\u201d when it became clear last spring that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[175187,1246,145463,148640,2356,1607,2662,175184,399,131012,175185,78563,9597,152186,6098,175186,9599,9598,398,396,397,6099,2229,99,8927,31424,3325,3324,175183],"class_list":["post-351959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-alon-shaya","tag-australia","tag-brigham-young-cougars","tag-brigham-young-cougars-football","tag-california","tag-college-football","tag-college-sports","tag-dave-cariello","tag-football","tag-jake-retzlaff","tag-joe-craddock","tag-jon-sumrall","tag-la-state-wire","tag-local-news-for-apple","tag-louisiana","tag-michael-arata","tag-mississippi","tag-ms-state-wire","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-new-orleans","tag-religion","tag-sports","tag-tulane-green-wave","tag-tulane-green-wave-football","tag-ut-state-wire","tag-utah","tag-yochanan-rivkin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}